"Great Work of Time" is a science fiction novella by American writer John Crowley, originally published in Crowley's 1989 book collection Novelty. A story involving time travel, it concerns a secret society whose aim is to avert World War I in order to preserve and expand the British Empire. Plot Caspar Last uses his newly-created time machine to travel to 19th Century British Guiana in order to obtain the very rare British Guiana 1c magenta stamp. Last plans to sell the stamp, reap the profits, and thereafter never use time travel or let it be used by others. A shadowy group called the Otherhood buys his stamp and takes control of the time machine, which they wish to use to preserve the existence of the British Empire. In the new timeline, the British Empire survives as a dominant world power throughout the Twentieth Century. Denys Winterset, a promising young official in the Colonial Service at Africa in the 1950s, travels the Cape to Cairo Railway where he meets a mysterious stranger, and is invited to join the Otherhood. Winterset is told that he must travel back to the beginning of the group in 1893 and assassinate its founder Cecil Rhodes. Otherwise, in the late 1890s, Rhodes will change his will and dissipate much of his fortune, the Otherhood will never come into being, and the original timeline will be restored. In another timeline, a different manifestation of Winterset travels into the future, something previously outlawed by the Otherhood. There, he learns that excessive tinkering with the timelines has generated countless unintended changes. The citizens of this world ask Winterset to go back, prevent the previous Winterset from killing Rhodes, and restore the "true" timeline. Meanwhile, the other Winterset has arrived in 1893 Cape Town and has no difficulty in gaining Rhodes' trust. At the moment of opportunity, a mysterious force (implied to be the future Winterset) prevents Winterset from pulling the trigger. The mission fails, trapping Winterset in the past. Winterset enters the service of Rhodes and witnesses first-hand the ugly and brutal side of Rhodes's independent colony-building. Later on, Winterset can only watch helplessly as "The Original Situation" reasserts itself, the world is convulsed by two World Wars and the second one is followed by the breakup of the British Empire. In the final chapter, Winterset, a young man, now living in the "true" twentieth century history, enters the